This narrow defeat will hurt the players but it’s a great learning curve

THESE are the worst games to lose as player, the tight ones really do hurt. People may have said you’re going to lose by 40 points and they tell you you’ve done ever so well to lose by just one, but there are so many what-ifs.

Could I have done this better, why didn’t I release the ball earlier? It’s painful.

But England can take an awful lot from this. There were lots of positives. That first 20 minutes was fantastic, they came out of the blocks flying. They came close to beating the world champions.

The game management was good, Owen Farrell started well, Chris Ashton was excellent — he’s wired for international rugby. Elliot Daly was good too.

But New Zealand can find a way to win these tight games. That’s the difference. That’s England’s next task, they have to learn that before the World Cup. Then they will have a real chance.

It comes down to decision making, getting everyone reading from the same script in the closing stages. Learning to be clinical when the time comes. More clarity of thought is needed. You saw it with Courtney Lawes near the end with that offload. I don’t think the offside will have been on his mind, it was just a mistake. They happen.

When England were so dominant in that long winning run it wasn’t so much about seeing out close games. Winning came easy.

An experience like this, and the one last week against South Africa, will harden them. Even the great team that won the World Cup in 2003 had to learn from these kind of moments. It doesn’t come easy. Going into the game much of the talk was about the two world-class No 10s, Farrell and Beauden Barrett.

Both managed the game well in what were horrific conditions. Owen will be a bit disappointed in terms of the attacking side, he was unable to get a foothold after that bright start and there were not as many set-pieces as he would have wanted. At the end when he put Jonny May back inside, it was the first time in a while that he’d been able to have an impact.

It was a hard day to stamp his authority. Both he and Barrett were living off scraps. But Owen was fantastic defensively.

The tackle on Damian McKenzie late on was crucial. Not just stopping McKenzie, who was really getting into his stride, but turning the ball over as well.

And he had a big impact with his kicking. It was very unusual to see both 10s get a drop goal.

Barrett took a little while to get going. He was very un-Beauden Barrett in many ways. But we know what he can do in fast games, he’s brilliant. But here he had to be pragmatic, diligent and bided his time. It was a dogfight out there and he did well. By the later stages he was excellent.